Circle of Fifths: The Path's end
by phatpigge
Summary: An up and coming pilot, a man who lost love, two seemingly impossible brothers, and a survivor from a global embarrassment. Together, these five hold one another up in a merciless world controlled by Corporations. Together, they are the 'Circle of Fifths'
1. Chapter 1

**Raven's Ark**

Once named Global Cortex, Raven's Ark, called Ark for shot is the world's 'mediating' organization. At first, it had been the sole owner of all Armored Core pilots, calling them 'Ravens'. To this day, they hold the impressive boast of being one of the most powerful organizations in the world due to the number of pilots it boasts. As for its purpose, it only has one: lend their power to those who can afford it. If money makes the world go around, then it's Ravens who do all the moving.

* * *

Chapter 1

It was an odd memory, considering the importance that the night brought. To many, it was a night for rest, a night that went by between closing their eyes and opening them again in the morning. However, to one man this was a night worth remembrance. It was dark, that was easy to bring to mind. Even through the darkness, the clouds were visible as the pale moonlight leaked through them. From the open areas, columns of silver shone down to the ground, granting pale illumination to the earth around. All was quiet except for two battle MTs, humanoid machines of great size piloted by soldiers slowly made their way across an endless fields of grass. Each one almost seemed to glow in the pale light, showing their bulky forms as well as the rifles held in their mechanical hands. One stopped and faced the horizon to the southeast, almost longing to be away from this placid field to places better. Soon afterward, the second stopped and looked at his companion. The radio cackled to life in both MTs and a voice patched through. Though distorted, it was easily placed as a man's voice.

"What is it?" he asked. The other MT pilot did not respond and simply continued to look into the distance. Suddenly, a shot was fired and a live shell impacted on the ground next to the MT. It swung around with its weapon to the ready, only to see its partner standing with a smoking gun.

"What was that for?" the other MT pilot asked, this one female. Both MTs lowered their weapons.

"I asked you a question, private."

"I didn't hear you."

"That was obvious. Now, answer my question." There was a pause after this.

"I thought I saw something on my scanners," the woman finally answered.

"What did it look like?"

"I didn't get a chance to scan."

"Just ignore it. Nobody knows that we're out here anyway. Even if anyone did, we're on a scouting mission. There's no reason to come here. Now come on, we need to get back on our patrol."

"Yes Sir." At this, both MTs turned back to their original path and began walking again. Soon afterward, the MT stopped again.

"What is it this time?" the man asked with a tired voice.

"I definitely have something Sir! I'm scanning it now… It's a carrier plane to the Southeast." Both MTs turned and faced the direction to see a tiny blip of light in the distance. It was definitely a carrier of some sorts. Suddenly, another blip appeared on the MTs' radars and a dim figure dropped from the plane. When the object landed, another one was dropped and a third blip appeared on the radar. The second landed close to the first and both were hidden in shadow. Suddenly, a bust of light appeared from both objects and they started to become larger each passing second.

"Come on!" the male MT pilot yelled. "Move out!" With that, both began to boost backwards to get away, but the two objects both stopped out of the MTs' firing range. The MTs stopped in turn, watching the strange figures. One was like them, human in appearance with a rifle in its right hand and a strange weapon on its left. The other had four legs and was noticeable lower, wielding strange weapons instead of arms. The radio cackled to life again, but this time, a different voice came on it.

"This is AC Roman Candle on an open channel. Both AC Poltergeist and I have entered the mission area. Commencing operation. You know the drill kid. I'm strictly an observer. All you have to do is wipe out the MT patrols occupying the area. After that, you'll officially be a Raven. Good luck." Immediately after the radio died out, the boosters on the humanoid AC flared on and it shot forward. There was no need for command; the MTs were first to fire.

Poltergeist tried to strafe to the left, but the movements were too slow and the rifle shells slammed into the armor, making noticeable dents. Without hesitation it then raised its right hand rifle and shot three quick bursts towards the MTs. Two shots missed and the last embedded itself into the chest of one MT. It was unfazed. Poltergeist simply continued to dash forward and soon began to fire wildly from its rifle, its pilot hoping that a flurried assault would do better than precise aim. Through the unfortunate luck that plagues beginners and makes them think highly of themselves, many of the fired shells embedded themselves into each of the MTs, causing massive visible damage to them. One of the mammoth machines hunched over and smoke began pouring from its joints. A scream came from the open channel right before the MT exploded. The other MT, piloted by the woman, looked from the wreckage of what was a MT to the AC. Poltergeist stopped its dash and looked at the burning metal.

"That was my commander you bastard," she said with an acid tone to her voice. She raised her weapon to the AC and began to fire madly at it. One last word came on the radio as this happened.

"Die."

The AC jumped up and used its boosters to hover farther back from the MT.

"I don't think so," a voice calmly said in response. The MT was about ready to fire another shell at the AC, but was met with a rocket before it could. The entire machine shook from the force and the explosion blinded the woman. When the smoke cleared, the MT pilot barely had time to see Poltergeist appear in front of her, a blade of pure energy rippling from its left arm. With one quick horizontal slash, the saber ripped the MT in half by the waist. The top flew a small distance away and smashed onto the ground. A hatch opened on the MT and the pilot scrambled out and ran in vain for her life. Shortly afterward, her MT exploded. The shrapnel from the explosion soared through the air and sliced into her. The woman clutched her stomach and fell onto the ground. Blood spilled everywhere and her vision began to dim. Before she passed out, she could barely make out the figure of an AC standing over her. Inside the AC, the radio came to life and the voice of Roman Candle's pilot came on.

"Don't stop there. You still have three patrols of MTs left to the east." Poltergeist activated its boosters and sped off to finish the mission. The final three patrols were no challenge and were each dispatched quickly enough. Within a few moments, Poltergeist came back to Roman Candle, showing a good bit of damage from its encounters.. The voice of Poltergeist's pilot came on the radio.

"This is AC Poltergeist. Done." A response came almost immediately.

"AC Roman Candle here. Congratulations Poltergeist, welcome to the ranks of mercenaries. Welcome to the Ravens. Wait here, the plane will arrive shortly."

"Please," Poltergeist's pilot said, "Call me Zephin."

* * *

To those who read this before, you know me and my insecure writing. . I really though I could do better, so I'm trying that out. I'm going to be writing this again, except better. It won't be exactly the same, so don't feel like I'm cheating you. I'll do what I can, so thanks for waiting. o:3


	2. Chapter 2

**Mirage**

Mirage is the largest and most powerful of the corporations, but even it is succumbing to the difficulties of expansion into undiscovered territory. Much to the corporation's ire, the company Navis has complete control of the area's resources. This has led to an easily started war between the two corporations. Despite their size difference, Mirage is having difficulty dealing with Navis, which is firmly entrenched into the area. However, Mirage didn't get to be to be the largest and strongest corporations by struggling with small fries like Navis. Mirage's actions demands results, and it will get them one way or another.

* * *

Chapter 2

It was a very difficult thing to ignore the sheer magnitude of the hanger. As Zephin left the cockpit of Poltergeist, he couldn't help but look up and marvel at the massive room that stretched on for hundreds of feet in either direction. The catwalks that traversed the area seemed a pale imitation when compared the massive floor below, which displayed dozens of crew workers and engineers that were constantly busy on their business arming and repairing behemoth machines. On the far wall was a massive doorway with two sliding parts that disappeared up into the wall above it and down into the floor below. However, the amazing fact was that there were only six ACs in the hanger, Zephin's Poltergeist included. There were many more hangers just like this, each one holding six Armored Cores each. As Zephin walked along the catwalk, he looked to his left at the AC that was next to him, Roman Candle.

It was altogether different than he remembered in the dark. The colors were very rigid and organized, each line of orange, red, yellow and black having a significant purpose. It almost looked like it was burning from beneath its armor skin. Its four legs each pointed out in a different direction, each one pointing 90 degrees from each other. However, its arms were really the strange thing; they weren't arms in a humanoid sense. They were long and extremely oval shaped appendages that extended out at least beyond the forward two feet. It was truly mysterious to Zephin how they worked, but his attention was drifting. Another pilot was walking out from it, a great bulky man with long and wild hair. His clothes were almost casual dress but he looked quite was well dressed compared to Zephin, who wore ragged khaki pants with a plain rock gray shirt and hiking boots. Zephin's eyes were deep blue and his hair was venom green and spiked, which all looked rather sad compared to the other man's penetrating dark eyes black hair. All in all, Zephin looked like an 18 year old college freshmen instead of his actual age 23, making him look like a child compared to the other man. The two looked at each other a second, but the larger man began to walk towards the exit and motioned for Zephin to follow.

"Hey kid," Roman Candle's pilot said as he approached Zephin.

"Hey," Zephin replied in a somewhat weak voice.

"So, how does it feel to finally be a Raven?"

"It feels… eh… great." After Zephin said this, there was a long silence. Eventually, both pilots looked at Poltergeist, Zephin's his now damaged Armored Core. The scorchmarks and burns only contrasted the rather distinguished holes in it.

"I have a question," Zephin said without turning. "What do I do about…"

"The repairs?" the other pilot interrupted. "Don't worry about them. The Ark has a special team of engineers and mechanics working around the clock to make repairs and modify the ACs."

"Ark?" Zephin, "What's that?"

"The company you work for now," the other man said. "A group of anonymous mercenaries founded it and hire up the best pilots to work for them. It's the largest group of Raven's in the world."

"What do I do until they finish repairing Poltergeist?" Zephin asked.

"Just sit around and wait. Do what you did as a civilian. Go out to bars, read, eat, sleep, talk to your new operator and things like that. If you get a chance, you should head to the training center to use one of the simulators. Who knows, maybe you can even get one of those outdated out-dated AI systems." The two were silent again as they walked. Zephin looked ahead to the approaching elevator doors that led to other parts of the facility.

"So, where do I sleep?"

"Take the elevator up to level 3 where the dormitories are. There will be a guard there who can direct you towards you sleeping quarters if you can't find your room. You will pretty much find anything you need there; bed, fridge, food, toilet, et cetera. Be sure to go over the rules and regulations before you go to sleep. These are very important. If you break the rules, Raven's Ark does have the right to send you back to hauling scrap or whatever your last job was. We've lost a lot of good pilots that way."

"Thanks, I will," Zephin said. They were finally at the elevator. "See you later." Zephin took at step towards the open elevator door, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

"One more thing," the other man said. "If you ever need anything, look me up and send me a message. My pilot alias is Stricken." Zephin simply nodded at this, not taking into consideration what was being said to him. As far as he cared, he was on top of the world. Why would he ever need help? As he walked into the elevator, he was dismayed to see it was currently heading down to the hanger floor. As it came to a stop and the doors opened, somebody had just called out his name. He looked up and saw a woman in a mechanic's uniform running towards him. He took a step out of the elevator to meet her. Though he would never admit it, Zephin had trouble bringing his eyes up to look into her face.

"Are you Zephin, the pilot of Poltergeist?" she asked.

"Yes I am. What is it?"

"We just received the order to fix up your AC. I've prepared a report on it. To be frank, things down here are hellish 24/7. If I don't have to send this to you, I'll have a lot more time to do what I need." She handed Zephin a slip of paper which he took absentmindedly before going back on the elevator. As he stood waiting for the doors to close, he looked at it. It had a total cost for the repairs, steps taken during the repairs, and an estimated finishing date. The costs had and 'x' over them, showing that the costs have been taken from his account already.

"This says it will be finished in four days," Zephin said. He turned around and looked at the woman. "What am I supposed to do until then?"

"Don't know," she said. "Don't care. Go make friends, train, have sex, whatever." At this, she turned and walked away. Zephin would never admit this either, but as she walked away, he could feel his eyes lowering. The elevator doors closed, blocking his sight far sooner than he would have wanted.

As he went up, the lift stopped in several places. Many people got on, and most got off just as soon. One particular man with bright red hair and baggy clothes got on with what appeared to be a secretary.

"Send Navis a message," the red haired man said. "Tell them I'll be there shortly. I'll go and warm up Brush Fire now."

"Yes sir," The secretary replied. "Right away!"

"Also, I want Nuclear Winter in on this. I'm gonna need his help on this one. The transport leaves in less than an hour at docking gate fourteen."

"Yes sir!" After that, Zephin's floor came up and he got off, leaving them to talk about official sounding business. However, just as soon as he left the lift, he was tackled to the ground by somebody. When Zephin recovered, he looked to see what had happened and saw the man who had run into him. He had a backpack that had fallen open, letting the various computer parts and papers it had been holding fly out. He immediately moved to a kneeling position and began to cram everything into his backpack. Zephin picked up one of the papers and handed it to him in a sad effort to help. The man looked up into Zephin's face. He had wild blond hair that hung down to his shoulders in a tangled mess, a blond beard, and his eyes were blue. When he stood up, Zephin saw that he wore torn black bellbottom pants, a tye-dye shirt, and a fisherman's hat. He had sandals on rather than shoes. He snatched the paper from Zephin's hand and muttered a quick 'thanks' before turning to walk off. When he did, the bag simply fell open again and everything fell out again. It was a short ordeal to fill up the bag a second time, but Zephin quickly noticed that there was now a small bag filled with green leaves on the floor. For a moment, both the man and Zephin stared at the bag. The man then stooped over and picked up the bag quickly before shoving it into his backpack. He looked at Zephin with a dull look on his face.

"You saw nothing." he said without much emotion.

"Whatever." Zephin replied apathetically. He wondered idly if this man was a Raven himself. If he was, Zephin simply couldn't believe that this sort of filth was allowed to join. The man stared long and hard at Zephin for a moment, his thoughts veiled behind a dull face.

"You're new, aren't you?" he asked monotonously.

"Yes," Zephin replied. "What of it?"

"Hello," He said with what appeared to be a small hit of excitement in his voice. However, his face betrayed nothing "My name is Oak. Oak Dweeble." Zephin had extended his hand, but froze instantly when he heard the name. What kind of man was this?

"Oak… Dweeble," Zephin said.

"Yes," Oak replied in an irked tone of voice. Both pilots stared at each other for a second or so before anything happened.

"What I was _going_ to say was that if you ever need advice or help, come to me. I spend my time training new pilots in the ways," he said.

"Come to you. Right," Zephin said in a sarcastic tone.

"Tch," Oak said. He pulled the sack over his shoulders a bit more snugly. "You new guys are all the same."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Zephin said. He could feel himself losing his patience.

"Always thing you're the top of the food chain. I hope that you aren't hurt too much when you get smashed," Zephin didn't say anything to this at first.

"Just smoke your pot," Zephin said.

"Whatever, kid. Listen, you're going to have a hell of a time with repairs, so I'll wire you some credits to you so you can get a decent energy rifle. If you use energy, you save big on ammo costs. Now, if you excuse me, I am a mechanic and I have to go upload some programs into my AC," Zephin was slightly taken aback by this.

"You're a mechanic?" he asked.

"Yup," Zephin tried to say something, but only two words came out.

"Hippie Mechanic," Oak stared at him with a blank expression in his face, but eventually turned and walked off without saying a word. Zephin turned to walk and found that there were two hallways running perpendicular and he was at the cross. He looked to a sign on one of the walls. It had the room numbers with arrows pointing down a certain hall. He thought back to his trip back from the initiation mission when he had been told his room number. Unless he was mistaken, he was in "191". He matched the number to a hall and proceeded down it. It was only a moment or so before he came to his room. He fished his key, which had graciously been left for him in his Armored Core by some unknown benefactor, from his pocket. When he came in, he found the room to be as nice as he had been told. It had a small kitchenette, a sort of living room with a television set, table, couch, and two armchairs, a bedroom with a large bed, and a joined bathroom.

He looked around his small apartment for a while, but eventually noticed a laptop sitting on the table. The screen was flipped up and a small icon was blinking over the background. He walked over and clicked on it to find that it was his mail. He had two letters. He opened the first one to find that it was the expected introductory letter from Raven's Ark. He ignored it and moved on to the next one. It was a letter from a man who claimed to be his operator. He said he was Howard Felis. Zephin then noticed that there was something beneath the back corner the computer. He grabbed it only to find it was an envelope. Inside was were a few disks, a paper labeled "Arena Notice", and a slip of paper labeled "Terms and Policies". Ignoring these for now, he stood up and turned on the TV.

The current station was broadcasting a news report. The anchorman chattered away while a video feed appeared on the upper right portion of the screen. In it, two Armored Cores could be seen at what was said to be a Navis base, destroying hordes and hordes of MTs. One Armored Core was a heavy biped a grenade launcher in each hand and dual pursuit missile launchers. The second was a machine with reverse jointed legs and a full complimentary of missiles weapons. The camera stayed on long enough to show the smaller of the two fire off about ten missiles at the same time. The missiles ripped through and smashed countless MTs, some exploding on contact. According to the anchorman, the MTs belonged to a company known as Crest, which was apparently at odds with Navis. The live feed ended and the anchorman changed the subject without much difficulty. Zephin turned off the set and sat looking out of a large picture window to the rolling hills in the distance. After a while, it began to rain. Zephin decided to call it a day, so he simply got up and went to bed. His eyes began to close and he was asleep within minutes. First days are always awkward, right?


	3. Chapter 3

**Crest**

While Mirage might be the largest Corporation, Crest is right behind it. While it has the potential to go far, Crest is having its own difficulty moving into the hostile Cooperation territory while also maintaining a good defense and technology base. Because of its excess power and money, Crest boasts something that the other Corporations do not: a private Armored Core force led by none other than Genobee. With this, Crest feels that it is its prerogative to step into the ever growing war between Mirage and Navis. After all, why shouldn't it? It had nothing to lose and everything to gain. That is, until Mirage and Navis had enough. With just that, Crest had entered the Corporation war.

* * *

Zephin had expected to have a sleep that was as calming and boring as his first day as a Raven. For as long as he could remember, he had slept 'like a log' as the saying goes, but that was not the case now. Today was the third night, leading into the fourth day and it just wasn't going well. In truth, he had spent the night thrashing alone in his room, waking up repeatedly because of some minute thing that came up. Use the bathroom. Glass of water. Hunger. Things just kept coming to him one at a time like a senseless parade. However, these were just prequels to the nightmare. When his body was finally satiated, he lay down on his mattress and tried to ignore the burning pains that shot through him and the uncomfortable sensations in his back. Every few minutes, it would pass for a moment then return and feel as bad as it had before. It was then that he heard things; whispers at first and soft speech later. He would limply open his eyes to look at the dark room, only to see nothing. Then the screams started. Zephin found no alternative but to clamp his hands over his ears and pray to divine beings to let it stop. His hands provided no barrier to the sound and he eventually gave into the maddening temptation to scream himself. His yells shook the walls until somebody came banging at his door, telling him to shut the hell up and that people were trying to sleep. Then it came.

It was strange, through and through. Zephin heard a tap at the window, only to turn and see somebody. He opened his eyes and sat up in bed, staring at the strange apparition before him. He wanted to ignore it and the possibility fiercely ran through his mind that this completely absurd. Then again, something compelled him to get up and look at it; obey it even. The person lifted their hand and motioned for Zephin to come close. He did so, seeing no reason why he should not. As he walked, he could feel the carpet rub against his bare feet. As he reached out to the window, he could feel the cold wind against the glass. The person moved farther away from him, motioning for him to keep coming. Without hesitation, Zephin opened the window tried to step out. Fortunately, the wall beneath the window stopped him. It was then that the painfully obvious realization came to him that he was four stories up and had nearly walked to his death. In a panic, Zephin stumbled backwards and fell, sitting, onto the bed. That's when the voice came.

"You…" it said. Zephin's head spun wildly at this. The voice was piercing and genderless; it came from nowhere yet surrounded him.

"What… me?" Zephin managed to say pathetically in a random direction.

"You think yourself mighty. You have no idea. You ruined… everything…"

"What did I do?" Zephin's voice recovered slightly. "What did I do?" he repeated, stronger.

"I had everything... I had…" the voice continued, but a strange sound began to engulf Zephin's ears. It was a strange sound, a high pitched scratching sound. It made one think of a swarm of bugs yet also of the sound of hundreds of birds both at the same time. As the voice spoke, it grew in volume as did the sound. Finally, Zephin could take no more and he threw his hands over his ears. The sounds and the voice then stopped.

"Who… are you?" he finally asked. There was a long silence.

"The one who will kill you, Zephin."

Zephin's eyes snapped open and he awoke. He stared at the ceiling of his room for many minutes, his mind blank and confused. Sunlight poured into the room from his open window and a slight breeze shifted the curtains. It had only been a dream. It had only been a dream. It had only been a dream. At least that's what Zephin told himself. It had only been a dream. He kept saying this over and over in his head. It had only been a dream. Finally, Zephin let out a shaking sigh of relief as he wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. He tried to move, but found that his back was sore. Without anything better to do, he stretched silently in his bed for a while, conveniently forgetting the finer points of his dream as the pain faded. Then, after this, he stood up, showered, dressed, and walked into his smaller 'living' room to find Oak sitting in one of the guest chairs, watching television. His backpack was on the floor. Zephin stared at him, his mind like a blank slate. There were dark bags under Oak's eyes, making it look like he had been up all night. It was then that Oak took notice of Zephin and the two stared silently at each other for a long while. Oak was the first to talk.

"Why are you in my room?" he asked plainly.

"I was about to ask you the same thing?" Zephin snapped back.

"What do you mean by that? This is my room." Oak returned his gaze to the television.

"No it isn't, it's my room!" Zephin stepped between Oak and the currently running news report. "So, get the hell out!"

"Look here." Oak then pulled out a small slip of paper. It had "191" written on it, and Zephin could only presume that it was a room number. Zephin fought the urge to slap himself in the forehead, only to stomp over and rip the paper from Oak's hand.

"Are you serious?" he yelled. Zephin simply flipped the paper over and showed Oak that it now read "161". Oak stared at the paper and Zephin glared at Oak. Oak's jaw twitched and he put his head in his hands, taking a deep breath in the process.

"Shit." Oak said. "Shit, shit, shit…"

"You've been here so long and you can't even remember your own room number?" Zephin commented with a snide hint to his voice. In all honesty, he found it ridiculous that this guy was a Raven at all.

"I'm very absent minded," Oak replied in a terse voice. "I got lost last night and mistook your room for mine. There, happy?"

"Oh come on!" Zephin exclaimed. "Do you honestly expect me to… wait… the door was locked. How did you get in?"

"The door wasn't locked," Oak said without bothering to look up at Zephin. "You need to watch that in the future." Zephin simply stared at Oak like he was insane.

"Out," Zephin said. "Out!" Zephin pointed violently at the door. He knew that he as a Raven. He was accomplished as an MT pilot and he had come with high recommendations. As for this pathetic excuse for a man he saw before him, Zephin was clueless. However, he was certain that he didn't want anything to do with him. Oak looked up at him with a blank look in his face, the kind of look somebody gives when they are hiding something. Oak took a deep breath and stroked his goatee before walking to the door. He tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge. Before Zephin could move, he unlocked the bolt and stepped out.

"I can see that you and I just won't be getting along," Oak said.

"No," Zephin said. "Our caliber is too different."

"I'll give you advice," Oak said. He didn't turn to look at Zephin, he merely stared out into the hall. "From a professional to you. Watch your pride before it costs you your life." With that, he simply walked out of Zephin's room, leaving him to close the door and start his morning alone. Zephin walked into the 'living' room and collapsed onto a chair. Oak was exhausting to him; Zephin was hopeful that it would not be that way with every other pilot. As he flipped open his computer, he saw that it was barely even 9:00 am on his first day and he was already tired from stress. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Was every day going to be this insane? Maybe this pointless? Becoming a Raven looked to be a life of excitement, not this madness. Zephin opened his eyes and pondered on what to do. He wasn't hungry, nor did he fell like going to the so called 'training' rooms. He eventually decided to read his unopened mail, seeing that it was simply going to sit pathetically in his inbox and do nothing if he didn't look at it. There was one new message that was simply labeled "Terms and Policies". Zephin had heard of the Raven's Ark's ridiculously strict policies concerning what to do and not to do. It was almost like a set of commandments. Thou shall not deal directly with Clients. Thou shall not divulge information about missions. Thou shall not accept bribes, bonus payments not settled by the operator, or other such parts. Zephin knew all about these from his time in the cockpit of an MT, so he simply skimmed through it without a care as to what it said. He was probably going to break several of the rules regardless of whether or not he tried or cared. After this, he closed it and moved on to the arena notice. It immediately had a picture of his AC and the all of the specifications on it, ranging from its speed and defenses to its cooling and energy capabilities. To the upper left corner he could see his ranking in the Raven's Ark arena; 0 of 52.

He closed the message, ignoring the two from the day before and began to fiddle around with his laptop to find out what he could about the Ark. He eventually found his way into the Arena rankings scale. He skimmed through the list to find anything that interested him, only to stop at the two familiar names on the list.; Nuclear Winter, who was ranked in the top five and Brush Fire, who was in the top ten. Nuclear Winter was a strange heavyweight Armored Core with light blue color, two legged design, and two arm mounted grenade launchers. These arm grenade launchers were only complimented by a back mounted grenade launcher on one, and a 'high velocity energy cannon' on the other. Zephin made a quick note on how fast the pilot was to change his weaponry since last night. Somehow, it impressed him slightly, but Zephin couldn't put his finger on why.

Brush Fire was totally different from Nuclear Winter. It was a lightweight machine, supported by legs with reverse joints. Both arms carried missile launchers and the back only added to this with a twin back missile launcher on his back. There was some kind of weapon additive on his shoulders, though their function wasn't quite obvious. Zephin then noticed that there was a small link beneath Brush Fire's picture. He was about to click on it when his eye caught something. IT was a third Armored Core that seemed to bother Zephin. It only took a moment to click on the name and the design wasn't anything too special. However, there was something on the back of Zephin's mind, something that bothered him. The Armored Core was simply titled White Tower. It was a light biped with a long rifle, energy sword, and a rocket launcher. Unlike Nuclear Winter and Brushfire, this page provided a small description.

"AC White Tower has been a registered Raven for over a year now and is still growing in popularity among the fans. Though he derives some of this fame from his tremendous aerial combat skills, he gains most of it from being Raven Ark's only openly gay pilot. Contrary to what many would suspect, people admire his courage at admitting it and this has only made his fan base grow. Although it is known that the pilot has recently left his lover, there is no news as two who this might be. Though he is often ignored by Corporations and private investors, he still manages to make a living off of missions exclusively. He currently stands at slot 15 in the Arena and is expected to rise in the near future."

Zephin leaned back in his chair and considered this. Broke up with his lover? Something about that bothered Zephin immensely, but he couldn't figure it out. He simply shrugged and went back to check his other mail. When he got back, he found yet another message. He opened it and found that it was from his operator. He read down the page and froze midway through a sentence.

He had been sent his first mission assignment.

According to Felis, his operator, a small Crest base had been overrun by Kisaragi and Navis forces. Crest needed him to go in, wipe out the wipe out all of the attackers and turn on the base's defensive system. The reward stood at 100,000 credits and the transport would be waiting outside his hanger a few hours after he accepted. Without hesitation, Zephin sent back a reply saying that he accepts the mission and sprinted for the doorway. It took a mere matter of moments to get to his Armored Core and start the systems up. There was a large plane waiting for him outside the gate. It took Zephin a moment walk Poltergeist into the hold, but he was soon ready and flying off towards destinations unknown. As the plane rose into the air, Zephin noticed a blue light the lower left corner of his screen; somebody was hailing him. He keyed in a quick command and a voice came on that filled his cockpit.

"Alright kid," the voice said. "This is Felis, your operator. I'm going to talk you through this, so listen up and this mission will be a breeze." Zephin resisted the urge to make a comment on this. "This will be a straightforward operation. You'll be dropped into the mission area from the plane. When you're done, send me a hail and I'll set the pilot back to pick you up."

"Will do," Zephin confirmed.

"Like I said in the notice, this is pretty straight forward. The Crest forces defending the base have been wiped out already, so you don't worry about mistaking targets. Get in, wipe out everything that moves, and turn the systems back on. Until then, please observe the 'fasten safety belt' and 'no smoking' signs. Be sure to keep all parts inside the vehicle at all times and I ask you to refrain from firing your weapons inside of the transport. We've had small companies and warlords who have become dissatisfied customers in that way." With this, Felis signed off an left Zephin to ponder the sad little joke. With nothing else to do, Zephin relaxed in his seat. The flight would take an hour or so, but Zephin was content to sit and do nothing. Then again, waiting was one of Zephin's weaker points.

When the hour had finally passed, Zephin was fast asleep. If there is one thing Zephin can claim credit for, he can sleep through most anything. In fact, when the back hatch opened and the drop alarm sounded, he simply slept on. The only reason he did wake up was that he was getting elevation sickness due to his Poltergeist's freefall. When Zephin realized what had happened, he somehow managed to upright his AC and activate his boosters before his craft smashed violently into the ground. The land underneath him was barren dust for miles, which made it rough and bumpy to move on. From what Zephin could see, the base was in front of him and much smaller than he expected. The entire base top was a concrete landing pad with three smashed turrets and a single hanger in the center. Unfortunately, there was no time to admire the architecture. A small patrol of reverse jointed MTs were walking along the perimeter. They saw Poltergeist before Zephin saw them, and the first notice that he had of them was the shock of their ammunition slamming into Poltergeist. Zephin had Poltergeist belatedly boost to the left in an attempt to dodge, raising up his rifle to return fire as he did. One of the MTs was hit and lost balance. The thing fell over and began to smoke as it made futile attempts to rise. As it moved on the ground, dust was being thrown into the air, making a cloud of concealment for the remaining MTs. Zephin hesitated at this. His eyes arced across his screen looking for a target. A few shots came from the dust could and Zephin decided to switch over to his Fire Control System. A quick key command later, his Armored Core was aiming for him. He fired three more times, each one hitting an MT. Zephin couldn't tell, but it appeared that another enemy AC dropped. The small fleeting feeling of victory left Zephin as a missile burst from the cloud of dust and smashed into Poltergeist's core. Zephin was rocked against his restraints as his hands flurried over the keypad to keep the craft standing. With this, he decided that movement would be better than static combat.

Zephin pushed Poltergeist forward in a mad boost towards the dust cloud. His left hand energy blade hissed into life as he came upon his target. As he passed through the cloud, he slashed at the supposed target. His was rewarded with the sound of metal being slashed into ribbons. As turned to look at the dust cloud, he could see the ever rewarding sight of black smoke billowing up, followed by a quick explosion. With that, the MT's were dealt with and Zephin was ready to head back to the Ark. Zephin keyed in a quick command and patched himself to Felis.

"Felis," Zephin said. "When will the plane be back?"

"When you finish the mission," Felis said. "There are still some enemies left."

Then, just to prove his point, Poltergeist was hit with a barrage of attacks. He immediately boosted ahead and turned to see what was happening. There were more MTs, but no in the way he had expected. These things were like helicopter, except that their design was almost a cone with a gun barrel on the bottom. Zephin scoffed as he shot one out of the air with his rifle. 'Leave it to the weak companies to send in trash' Zephin though. The things moved ridiculously slow, so Zephin had no difficulty in taking them out. The only thing he had to worry about was the occasional burst of energy bolts that they shot at him. It didn't take more than a minute before they were all wiped out. Zephin's hands flew over the keypad and a small schematic view of Poltergeist came up. Several of the parts showed severe heating, but damage was still within acceptable range. Zephin got rid of the view and checked his radar for the remaining enemies. There were only blue dots on his screen; they were beneath him. Zephin looked around and decided there must be a lift or something in the hanger. A quick check showed him to be right; the lift was quite suitable for his purposes. The decent was quite easy and slow, but the main problem came up when Zephin tried to open the door. Something on the inside was jamming it, a kind of internal light. Zephin thought it over for a second before firing a shot at the door. Nothing happened, so Zephin decided it was time to use his energy beam yet again. A few quick slices later and the door fell outward into the large storage room beyond. Zephin turned off the blade and stepped in. A quick conference with his radar told him he had been wrong, there was only one enemy ahead of him. Zephin looked up to his screen and saw it ahead of him, and his heart sank.

"So you're it?" a new voice said on the radio.

"Shit!" Felis exclaimed over Poltergeist's radio. "Zephin, get out!"

"Why?" Zephin replied with a calm voice.

"Idiot! That's White Tower. He will destroy you!"

"I beg to differ." Zephin said. "I've read up on him. Anybody who's willing to let their AC description turn into a drama is below me. I can take him" As soon as he said this, Zephin shut off Felis' connection and focused on White Tower.

"Are you serious?" White Tower's pilot asked. "Do you honestly believe that? Fine then, I'll she you what it takes to be where I am now." With this, White Tower raised its rifle and let it bear down on Poltergeist. "Come on, little birdy. Let me clip your wings."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Zephin's eyes slowly opened and he did not know where he was. His head slowly rolled to his left and his eyes lazily scanned the empty room. He was on a bed; that was for certain. There were curtains around the bed, so there wasn't much to see beyond them, except that the room was small, well lit and empty. He felt a small cough come up from his chest and a dull pain came through his body. He then noticed that breathing hurt slightly, which led him to the conclusion that his rib was broken. With that, he raised his head up slowly and laboriously to look down at his body. He had only a second to see that there was nothing wrong with him before he lost strength and his head fell back onto his pillow. He tried to move his right arm but found that it hurt. A quick glance showed him that there was a needle in it, connected to an I.V. A small grin came to his face. This place was a hospital. Zephin chuckled, only to regret it due to the pain. Why would he be in a hospital? He tried hard to remember what had happened, but it just wasn't coming to mind. As far as he could remember, he had been in his room at Raven's Ark, sleeping. He had met Oak and driven him off. After that… he had looked at the computer? Zephin meekly shook his head. He had done something like that, he just couldn't remember. He suddenly heard voices coming closer, but he strength was ebbing. A figure of a man appeared in front of him, outside the curtain right before his eyes shut and his consciousness was lost.

"Hey," a familiar voice said. "You awake yet?"

Zephin's eyes slowly opened, revealing the blur of a world around him. The white tile ceiling beamed down at him as he began to make sense of everything. The curtains had been drawn back to reveal that the rest of the hospital room. There were many more beds all around him, only a few with actual patients in them. Zephin felt his strength come to him and pushed himself into a sitting position. He shook his head to clear his thoughts before looking to his right to see his sole visitor. He was immediately disappointed to find that it was Oak, and his face probably reflected it. Oak sat in a chair facing the bed and was looked vacantly at Zephin. This surprised him. Zephin had expected some kind of sneer with a face filled with superiority. At the very least, he had expected something like 'I told you so'. However, nothing like that came and Oak simply continued to look at the young pilot.

"I suppose you're here for something," Zephin eventually commented. For some reason, he found that he had to look away, though he couldn't say why. Oak shook his head and sighed.

"I came to see the damage that Benjamin did," Oak replied. Zephin looked back to Oak with a slightly confused look on his face.

"Benjamin?"

"White Tower's pilot," Oak said in an almost tired voice. "I've run into him before."

"Have you…" Zephin's mind trailed off at this. White Tower… the name rang a bell with Zephin. Oak and White Tower knew each other… Could he have…

"I had nothing to do with this," Oak said simply, almost as if he had read Zephin's mind. "On the contrary, I came because I found out what had happened, and you're lucky I did.

"What do you mean?" Zephin asked.

"Don't you remember? You were slaughtered." Zephin heart cramped in his chest and his mind stopped. Slaughtered? Had he been on a mission? That would explain why he was here. Zephin was about to say something when his mind snapped and everything came flooding back to him in one gigantic tide.

_White Tower playfully fired a shot at the fleeing Poltergeist, smashing the machine's external armor even more and lowering his chances of escaping just as much. Ever since White Tower showed up, the mission had turned from a battle to a struggle. It was obvious from the moment that White Tower smashed the elevator to prevent escape that Zephin was doomed. Zephin moved Poltergest behind a stone pillar, narrowly avoiding a rocket. Poltergeist's radio cackled to life as the pilot of White Tower began to laugh almost gleefully._

"_What's wrong, Raven? Find out now that you're flying too high?" Zephin turned on his receiver and spat an answer into it._

"_Oh… what a brilliant comeback," Zephin's opponent remarked snidely._

"_Shut up!" Zephin shouted. Poltergeist then flew out from behind the pillar and fired a missile straight at White Tower. White Tower simply walked two steps to the right and boosted to the left, deceiving the missiles guidance system so it flew harmlessly off to the side and hit the wall behind its target. However, it didn't avoid the rain of bullets that followed. While White Tower was dodging, Zephin had recovered his wits and Poltergeist was charging forward, firing madly from its basic rifle. White Tower took a few shots before its pilot assessed the situation and maneuvered away. The machine jumped and used its boosters to fly backwards, moving behind a pillar of its own._

"_This has gone on long enough," the enemy pilot said as he landed. The Armored Core remained behind the pillar as it reached its weapon around the corner, using an automatic targeting system to guide its shots. Two shots smashed into Poltergeist's core unit, causing electricity to surge and Zephin to panic. Zephin's opponent took this as an advantage and carefully shot off Poltergeist's left leg at the knee. Zephin desperately tried to keep his A.C upright, but that was simply impossible. Poltergeist's frame swung wildly as it fell forward and crashed face down, slamming Zephin into his restraints. He feel his ribs crack as the hard and unforgiving cloth cut into him. As he moved Poltergeist's arms to push itself off the floor, he saw the feet of White Tower. The enemy Armored Core pointed its sniper rifle at Poltergeist's head and paused for a moment, as if contemplating the scenario._

"_Listen, corporate lacky," White Tower's pilot said. "When Crest gets here to pick up your smoking remains, tell them that Navis won't let them have their way. We've been here long before you, and we'll be here after you lay in ruin." When he finished, a shot rang through the underground storage room and a sizable hole was blasted into the back of Poltergeist's head. Armor integrity was now completely finished; Zephin had lost. Zephin breathed deeply in the cockpit of his craft. A mechanical voice rang out through the metal interior. 'A.P at zero percent, system switched to normal mode. Mission failed.' Zephin looked to his still active view screen and made his crumbling machine look up at White Tower. The enemy Armored Core turned and looked for a way out of the facility. _

_The entire facility suddenly shook and a loud explosion could be heard. Without warning, a large crack appeared in the ceiling and a large chunk of the ceiling fell in. White Tower took a step back and turned to get a better view. A sound that resembled an Armored Core booster could be heard for a second, and then it stopped. A large, hulking tank of a machine fell through the opening in the ceiling and smashed into the ground. The sound that came as the machine landed was indescribable except that it was like listening to a million bits of metal and rock snapping all at once. The Armored Core as a heavy thing on a tank base, which two large guns in each hand and one exceptionally large cannon on its shoulders. A dull voice filled Poltergeists' cockpit to identify the new contender._

"_A.C AC/DC identified. This AC is equipped with high-powered energy weapons constructed to cause incredible amounts of damage. The pilot utilizes the craft's high A.P to endure all oncoming fire so that it can get close enough to line up devastating shots. Avoid close combat at all costs." _

_White Tower stared over at AC/DC and opened a radio link to the machine/_

"_It's been a while, hasn't it?" the pilot of White Tower said. It was almost as Zephin wasn't even present. _

"_It has, Benjamin," the opposite pilot replied._

"_What brings you out here in full A.C?"_

"_I was sent by Raven's Ark to correct a mistake."_

"_Mistake?"_

"_You know better than I do that this isn't right."_

"_What?"_

"_This guy you've just crushed is new. This was his first mission." White Tower momentarily looked down at Poltergeist._

"_Really? I thought it was too easy. Then again, I never mind teaching a lesson to new blood. So you're here to bail him out, I take it?"_

"_That's the idea."_

"_And destroy me if I get in the way, right? You know I can't fight you. Besides, I'm here to defend the facility. You and your grand appearance have caused me to fail. My job here is done."_

"_Then I guess you should be leaving." There was a long pause at this. Zephin didn't understand it, but there was a strange feeling that couldn't be placed. It wasn't one of anger or anything that came from confrontation. It was something… deeper._

"_Yeah," Benjamin eventually replied. At this, White Tower turned and walked towards the newly opened hole in the ceiling. When it was close enough, it activated its boosters and flew out of the facility. After this, AC/DC simply rolled over to Poltergeist and stared down._

"_Care for a lift" the other pilot said over the radio. "Or is your pride still too big?"_

"_Yeah," Zephin replied in quiet voice. A few moments passed and he could hear somebody outside his cockpit. The door lock disengaged and Poltergeists pilot chair slid backwards and into the open. Zephin squinted as he came into the light. As his eyes adjusted, he could see drops of blood falling from his face. He looked up to see Oak walking over the back of his machine towards him. Oak's mouth opened to say something but no sound came out. With that, Zephin's vision blurred and his world faded to the black abyss of unconsciousness. _

When Zephin's mind came back to the present, he saw Oak, sitting quietly and patiently. Zephin opened his mouth to say something but could only look away in shame. Oak didn't say anything. There were no comments, no insults, and no advice. All he did was sit and look as Zephin's eyes began to tear up. Somehow, that was comfort enough.

"You saved me," Zephin said quietly.

"You could say that," Oak said.

"Why?"

"Benjamin. He's sadistic sometimes. I think he knew you were new, but, as you can see that didn't stop him."

"How did you know?"

"There was a news report. I only had to watch you for a few seconds before I realized you were in serious trouble. Navis and the other Corporations are alike in one thing. You can never know what to expect with them." There was a period of silence after this.

"What happened?" Zephin asked.

"What?" Oak asked in return.

"How was I given a mission like that? Doesn't the Ark regulate this kind of stuff?"

"That's the thing. They usually do, but something been going on lately. Pilots are cutting exclusive deals behind the Organization's back, people are selling out, operators aren't doing their jobs, so on and so on. It wasn't like this until recently, and I don't know what's going on. All I can say is hold on. Give the administration some time and I guarantee you that the administrators will rain down hellfire on the bastards responsible. Until then, all you need to do is recover." There was another pause. Zephin wiped the tears from his eyes and looked away from Oak.

"So," Zephin said. "What now? My A.C is destroyed and I doubt I got paid."

"You forget so easily," Oak commented, sighing. "I told you I'd lend you money."

"A new A.C," Zephin scoffed. "That's quite a price. What the hell would make you pay for that?"

"Exchange," Oak said simply. "No matter where you go, there are always people with too much of one thing and too little of another. Me, I've got money. You've got time." Oak pulled a piece of paper and pencil out of his bag and scribbled something down on it. After this, he tossed it onto Zephin's lap and stood up.

"That's a date, time and location. Meet me and my friends there and we'll talk about this further." Oak then began to walk away.

"Wait," Zephin suddenly said. Oak stopped and looked back to the miserable form of Zephin. "Why are you doing this?" Oak looked away and thought about this.

"Why?" he eventually replied. "Because I can, I guess. There are other reasons I suppose, but those are for me to know and you to assume." With that, Oak walked away and Zephin was left to sit and consider his future alone.

Zephin was released a day later on account of his wounds recovering. His wounds were only scratches and his rib had only cracked and would be fine as long as he didn't do anything extreme. With nothing better to do, Zephin went to his room and stumbled around his own boredom for the next two days. In this time, he learned that Poltergeist had been destroyed beyond repair and would have to be completely replaced. News had spread of the entire ordeal between Crest and Navis. Zephin's mission had resulted in a stalemate between the two organizations and the Facility was dubbed useless. The report went on about how this would be a blow to Navis and that the area was a good stock point for long range assignments, but Zephin found that he didn't particular care. All he concentrated on doing was eating, sleeping and browsing the Corporation stores for Armored Core parts. Anyway, there was nothing really to do until the third day, the day that Oak had said to meet him.

Zephin woke up and lazily got ready the next day. The air was thick with apathy as Zephin got dressed and left his room. Zephin examined the paper again, only show that he remembered correctly. Level 2. Training Room. 12 noon on the dot. Zephin yawned as he got on the elevator and went down. It was a short trip and the elevator door opened into a large open room. There was a small coffee shop with at least a dozen round tables surrounding it. Other pilots were sitting and talking about this and that. All along the four walls were a large number of doors, each one with a number over it. Upon inspection, Zephin found that these were modeled after Armored Core cockpits, view screens and all. Zephin found the indicated room, which was a repeated clone of every other one and went in. The paper instructed Zephin to start up one of the machines and join Training Room 5. Zephin did so with little enthusiasm as he sat down in the pilot seat. The lights in the small room faded as the screens flickered on, the screens black, only to have a message come up seconds later

"This is a simulator.

Please use this to hone your abilities

and uphold your title as a Raven.

Please hold you I.D card up to the scanner.

Zephin searched his pockets for this supposed ID, hoping that he actually had such a thing at all. After a while, he felt it in his left hip pocket and held it up to a small box next to the pilot chair. With that, the screen came up with a list of rooms, only to show that Training Room 5 was empty. Zephin selected it and the screen brought up the now destroyed Poltergeist, along with the machine's statistics and performance, which was a meager 'D' ranking. With that, the screen changed to the usual Armored Core start up sequence. Temperature, check. Armor Integrity, check. Energy, check. All systems go. The screen changed to an areas selection that displayed a large variety of terrain that ranged from desert wasteland to glacier. Zephin eventually settled on a city setting modeled after Navis' Bayload City. Finally, Zephin was prompted to select an opponent. Zephin simply went for and the screen went black was the area loaded.

It was astonishingly lifelike, this simulation. Zephin could only admire the effects of the rain and lighting as he pressed his simulated Armored Core forward. To his surprise, his pilot seat tilted forward to simulate movement. With this little bit of information, Zephin grinned and pushed Poltergeist into a full sprint, feeling his chair shake and move beneath him. It took Zephin a while to notice that his armor integrity was dropping, indicating the enemies that he had programmed into the simulation. Zephin sighed as he readied Poltergeist's rifle and took a few stray shots at the oncoming enemies. A green word 'Hit' appeared on the lower right part of his screen, it's message quite clear. After a few more shots, Zephin decided that he should focus on what was going on rather than sit around and wait, so he turned to face the oncoming enemies head on. A quick movement later, Zephin had keyed in the command to activate his left-hand energy blade. Another second later, Poltergeist was boosting towards a group of five , ready to slash them down where they stood. As Zephin advanced, his armor integrity began to drop alarmingly fast. As Zephin saw this, something clicked in the back of his mind and he panicked. Out of fear, he stopped his boost and tried to strafe away, but it was to no avail. The were too coordinated to allow him to escape.

"Warning, AP at 50 percent," a cold mechanical voice said. Zephin scoffed at this. It was somehow humorous that the machine announced its own impending doom, even after it had already died. It was then that something flashed across Zephins screen and one of the suddenly exploded before him. He stared blankly at this, trying to figure out what had happened.

"Mind if we join the fun?" a voice asked. Zephin looked at his radar display to see several allied units coming towards him. One was directly in front of him, above him. With a quick glance, Zephin looked up, ignoring the enemies before him. It was an almost majestic sight, this Armored Core that stood on a rooftop looking down. It was humanoid and dark; the only color upon it was an almost rhythmic gray with a single horizontal bar of a red eye glaring down at him. It had no apparent weapons apart from the long glowing blue blade of energy glowing off its left hand. Zephin stared in awe at it, almost admiring the pilot before remembering to answer.

"Sure." Zephin replied with a stupid grin on his face. He suddenly felt like an idiot child admiring a rock star, so he shook his head and let the grin fade. Then, without warning, the other Armored Core leapt off the building, raising its blade to slash through an unsuspecting enemy below. As the dark machine landed, it tore vertically through the M.T farthest left, only to narrowly avoid a sudden blast of blue electricity that smashed through the remaining enemies. Zephin looked in awe as this seemingly random attack tore the machines into parts before the blast faded into nothing afterward. Zephin turned to look at the source of this, only to see the same tank like Armored Core that had saved him from White Tower. The enormous cannon on its back was lowered over its right shoulder and blue electricity was crackling around it. Zephin was about to say something when another voice came onto the radio.

"Good to see you came, kid," Oak said. "I was afraid I'd have to go hunt you down. Just so you know, I'm the guy in the tank. I call it AC/DC: Alternating Current/Direct Current. My gothic looking friend here is Eli and his A.C is simply called Brimstone. Don't ask me why he calls it that, he just does. Then again, it's definitely better than others I've heard are. I've told him about you already, so we just have to wait on the brothers."

"Brothers?" Zephin asked, turning to take a pot shot at another group of , missing rather badly. He turned to face them and boosted off to the side as he fired off a missile, which found it's mark and made a sizeable dent in one of the enemy machines. As it returned fire, Zephin keyed in a quick command and Poltergeist switched to its rifle. Zephin was all too happy to hold down the trigger and watch as his opponent fell beneath his barrage of fire.

"Yeah," the second pilot, probably Eli, commented. "You're right, Oak. He ain't too bad."

"And he's fresh," Oak added. "Just adds onto our bonuses."

"Good, good," Eli said almost ponderously. "I trust you called us here to help him out with that machine as well?"

"Yeah," Oak said. The tone of his voice embarrassed Zephin. It made him quite aware of his destitute situation. "So, we just have to wait and… hm… Here they are now."

"'Oi!" a strangely accented voice suddenly yelled over the radio. "Boxy! Move!" Before Zephin even had time to realize that the other pilot was talking about him, two grenades flew past him, one on either side of Poltergeist, each one smashing into a simulated M.T. Zephin checked his radar to see another two green dots, allies, rushing towards him at an alarming speed. A machine moved past Poltergeist swiftly and spun around to face towards it. As it came to a halt, a barrage of missiles fell from the sky and demolished the remaining behind it. A second later, another Armored Core flashed past Poltergeist on the opposite side, spinning and stopping to stand by the other. Zephin only had to stare at them for a second to realize who they were.

"A falling pebble could never cause an avalanche," a familiar voice said over the radio. "And a gust of wind failed to topple the house of bricks. However, the tiny flame of a candle that fell over in the night spread and destroyed the entire countryside. Fire is wild, untamable and alive! I am that candle flame, the spec that spreads to annihilation! A.C Brush Fire, pilot Burny. Pleasure to meet you."

"Yeah," the voice said afterward. "Same story but with cold. Nuclear Winter. Frosty. Nice to meet you."

"You guys?" Zephin asked. "I saw you on the news a few days ago! You two are amazing!"

"Please, hold the ass kissing for after the performance," Frosty commented.

"What the hell?" Burny demanded.

"What?" Zephin asked.

"Not you, Frosty! That was a pathetic introduction!"

"So?"

"Where was the grand-ness of it all?"

"Grand-ness?"

"Yes! The grand opening? The exciting introduction? The awesome conclusion? Where was it?" Frosty didn't respond. Instead he sat for a moment, almost ponderously, before raising one of Nuclear Winter's grenade launchers and firing it into Brush Fire. Burny let out a short cry before flying back and launching a massive salvo of missiles at his brother, who evaded simply and chased after him. Zephin wanted to watch, but Oak was trying to get his attention.

"Anyway, those two are the guys," he said. "Now that we're all here, we can begin. Eli, close this room."

"Sure thing," Eli said.

"Now, here's the deal Zephin. We all talked it over and came to an agreement on this. Your predicament sucks, quite frankly. I hate to say it so bluntly, but that's it. Now, word around is that the administrators are finally making their move. Pretty soon, the Ark will be wiped clean and every little sap who though he could get away with breaking the rules will be out of a job. Now, we're all fine but you need somebody to voice for you. Also, you need an A.C. The Ark won't find much value in you if you don't have an A.C. Now, here's the kicker. We need a fifth man, and we've all decided that we don't want anybody whose already either sold or has their head up their ass. Sadly, that leaves you and a few other candidates. However, you're in more of a position to stay with us. Why? We've all chipped in to buy you a brand spanking new A.C, paint job and all. Now, here's the deal. We're forming an AC group and we want you in. You can either join us and enjoy all the benefits, which include group missions, a free A.C, and help when you're in a pinch or you can get fired and go back to piloting a M.T. What do you say?"

Zephin stared blankly at the image of AC/DC, trying to figure out if there were any negative repercussions. In the back of his head Zephin could faintly feel something telling him not to do it, some little spec of Id that desperately thought this was contradictory to his survival. Then again, he wasn't established in anything but Mech piloting. He glanced up to his view screen to see AC/DC blast an M.T with a right arm weapon of sorts. Zephin scratched in itch on the side of his head. The idea had suddenly occurred to him that being an A.C pilot seemed to reflect better upon his chances of living rather than going back to heavy machinery operation. With that, it was settled. Zephin sighed and set in his answer.

"I guess I have no choice," he said into the radio. "I guess I'll join."

"No choice," Oak commented. "Sure. Keep telling yourself that. That leaves us with a few things to decided. Frosty! Burny! Come here!" It was then that Zephin noticed the two brothers were still fighting each other. As he stared, they stopped their rampage and came over to the group. "Now we begin," Oak continued. "Zephin has agreed that it is in his best interests to join with us, making us a group of five in total. I guess it almost goes without saying that we're here because we have nowhere else to turn. Each of us has a history we're not too particularly proud of, but that is what's going to unite us better than any other A.C gang on the face of this earth. Each of us have our own little cares and woes that drive us on through this life, and I know for a fact that you're no different, Zephin." At this, Zephin felt his heart pound on the inside of his chest. Oak knew? How could he possibly… no. Oak knew that he had something to hide, but he didn't know what. That, as far as Zephin was concerned, was fine.

"Poltergeist, AC/DC, Brush Fire, Nuclear Winter, and Brimstone. Now we join together and become the only true allies each of us has left in the world. Gentlemen, look around and welcome to your new family.

…Welcome, to the Circle of Fifths."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Zephin slowly opened his hands and stretched his fingers, fidgeting slightly in the secure hold of his pilot seat. The new padding still hadn't been 'broken in' yet, so it was still slightly uncomfortable. However, the restraints were much more tolerable than the ones in his previous core unit had been. Zephin had to admit one thing about prices. Unlike the rest of the world, when you paid a high price for an Armored Core part, you get every single credit worth of what you pay for. As far as piloting goes, these parts are built to work and they were built to last. Zephin coughed slightly as he wrapped his hands around his two control sticks, comfortably fitting his fingers around the triggers. Though he couldn't see it, he was certain that Poltergeist's fingers were flexing as well, courtesy of the strange electric gloves Oak had installed. It would take some getting used to using these controls instead of the panels before him considering they wrapped over his entire forearm but Zephin would manage. After all, he would have to eventually go back to the keypad for one thing or another, so he wouldn't miss it for long. Zephin's eyes eventually wandered up to the view screen, showing him the large arena like room he was in. The ceiling went up to incredible heights and the walls were spread out to great lengths, leaving bountiful room for maneuvering on ground and air. On the opposite side of the room stood a single opponent, an Armored Core known simply as Brush Fire.

"You ready for this?" Burny asked over the radio. Zephin let in a deep breath as he went over his machine's information again, taking in its weaponry and capabilities. It was time.

"Yeah," Zephin replied. "I think so, though I haven't piloted this thing yet so I'm not sure…"

"That's why we're doing this first," Burny said dully. Though Zephin couldn't see him, he was certain that he bored out of his mind. "Remember, the on us so find whatever's suitable for you and we'll see to it. Now, start whenever you're ready." Zephin closed his eyes and breathed, calming his mind for what was to come.

Zephin's eyes snapped open and he thrust his right arm ahead, pulling the trigger. His view screen partially revealed Poltergeist's arm as it fired from his new energy based rifle. As the small streaks of purple energy shot from his weapon, Zephin used the equipment around his feet to move Poltergeist into a strafe to the right. These controls were efficient but greatly tedious, making the entire movement a strain on Zephin. With a slight bend at the knees, Poltergeist began to move forward and a trigger on the left control stick activated the machine's boosters. As Zephin raced towards his opponent, firing all the while he watched as Brush Fire boosted to the side, evading all of his shots.

"Stop shooting at where I am," Burny commented nonchalantly over the radio. "Shoot at where I'm heading. You're FCS can only do so much; you have to do the rest."

"FCS?" Zephin asked. While he was waiting on an answer, he moved his right arm to the left slightly to adjust his aim. Surely enough, his shots started to make contact with the moving Brush Fire, who began boosting in a different direction to throw Brush Fire's aim. Poltergeist was adjusting his arm when a reply came.

"FCS means Fire Control System. It locks onto power sources for you to save you the trouble of aiming in tight situations. Upgrades allow you to do stuff and yadda yadda yadda. Keep firing at me. You're doing rather poorly right now."

"What do you mean poorly?" Zephin asked. He stopped firing and relaxed his legs, bringing Poltergeist to a halt. "I've been hitting you mostly!" Brush Fire also stopped.

"Yeah, but I've been moving back and forth in a straight line so far," Burny commented curtly. "Remember your fight with White Tower. That's that kind of competition you'll be up against, so this is chicken feed by comparison. Now point that gun at me and shoot the hell out of me." Zephin obeyed and the two continued their little game of chase. As time went on, Zephin started to notice that Brush Fire was getting harder and harder to hit. Within moments, Zephins opponent was practically flying through the air like a leaf in the wind, moving around his shots almost effortlessly. Despite this, Zephin tried his best to keep hitting. After a few seconds, he started putting all his concentration into simply hitting the fiery streak, bringing Poltergeist to a halt.

"Wrong!" Burny suddenly yelled. Brush Fire fell to the ground with a loud smash before firing a swarm of missiles that sailed through the air directly at Poltergeist. Zephin let out a short cry as he tried to boost out of the way. Unfortunately, Zephin panicked and couldn't coordinate his movements, leaving him to watch hopelessly as the missile smashed into his new Armored Core. The counter on the upper right corner of his screen flashed as his estimated armor integrity dropped by almost a thousand points.

"What the hell?" Zephin exclaimed.

"Never stop moving," Burny said simply. "We don't have time to get you moving a long at a nice slow pace. I have to educate you quickly, so I'll teach you to pilot like Frosty taught me."

"This is how you learned?" Zephin asked in amazement. "How the hell did you survive?"

"I learned quickly," Burny commented. "Now, get ready so we can start again." There was a second of silence as Zephin fidgeted in his controls.

"Say," Zephin began. "Why is it that you're teaching me?"

"Two reasons," Burny replied. "Everybody else is out on missions. Navis forces are being beaten into dust courtesy of Mirage and Crest, so there's a lot that needs be done."

"Really?" Zephin asked. He had heard of no such confrontation. "How do you know?"

"Kid," Burny said in a tired voice. "You've got to start reading your mail. Everything you need to know is in there. Anyway, reason number two is that I've got to test out my new legs. I've upgraded, if you hadn't noticed. They're called CR-LH89F, if you care." It was then that Zephin realized that he had, in fact not noticed at all. Upon closer examination of Brush Fire, he saw that the legs were no longer reverse joints, but quite humanoid. Zephin didn't understand the name, but he admired the strange design. The thing had a jagged surface that with pointed feet. All in all, it looked almost elfin, if something elfin could look 'bad-ass'.

"Interesting," Zephin lied. Poltergeist promptly fired another shot at Brush Fire, who evaded easily by jumping. Zephin suddenly had a spark of inspiration and he decided to follow it. Poltergeist began boosting forward, raised its arm and started to fire wildly at the now airborne Brush Fire. Burny came up on the radio, his voice bored and his message along the lines of 'stop wasting your ammo'. Some of the shots hit, but they mostly missed. Without warning, four missiles flew out from Brush Fire's right arm weapon in quick succession. Poltergeist immediately strafed off to the side, avoiding two of the missiles. Zephin ignored the protesting shakes Poltergeist gave and continued to push the craft forward. Within a few seconds, Zephin had moved into position and his moment was coming. Brush Fire finally ended his aerial dance and was landing. Zephin pulled his left trigger and Poltergeist's energy sword hissed into existence. Burny let out a short 'Wha?" before Poltergeist rushed forward and slashed horizontally. Brush Fire tried to evade, but it was too late. Burny swore as Poltergeist sliced into Brush Fire's core, leaving a long slash mark across the surface. The blade wasn't strong enough to pierce Brush Fire's armor, but it certainly must have dealt a good bit of damage to its armor integrity. Zephin let out a rough and excited laugh at this, his first real hit. However, he suddenly realized that something was amiss. Brush Fire had stopped moving for some reason, and the atmosphere was staring to worry Zephin.

"Hey," Zephin said with a surpassingly weak voice. "Burny. You okay?"

"You…" Burny said. His voice was deathly cold, making Zephin shudder slightly. Then, without warning, Brush Fire lifted its left arm and smashed its fist into Potergeist's head. Zephin panicked as his view screen turned into static.

"Head part damaged," a mechanical voice said. "Initiating repairs." Zephin immediately started to move his legs, making Poltergiest boost away in haste. A few seconds later, the entire cockpit shook violently. The screen the flickered back on and Zephin looked up just in time to see yet another swarm of missiles descending on him. He tried to boost away, but simply couldn't evade the attack.

"Warning, AP at fifty percent," The mechanical voice suddenly said. "Head part repaired."

"Burny!" Zephin exclaimed. "What the hell are you doing?"

"My," a new voice said. "It certainly looks like you two are having fun." Before Zephin could figure out what was happening, a large missile struck the ground near Brush Fire. The explosion was beyond description. Zephin literally had to shield his eyes as his view screen went white from the blast. When he removed his cover, he was astounded to see an enormous hole in the floor. A quick check to his radar showed that a third Armored Core had entered the fray. This thing was a short machine on tank legs, sporting some kind of weapon arms and a massive missile launcher on each shoulder.

"Who the hell is firing Titans?" Burny screamed over the radio. Zephin shuddered slightly at his voice, which was honestly starting to frighten him slightly. As far as Zephin was concerned, there was no good reason for Burny to be acting like this. Nobody had ever warned him about it.

"Who are you?" Zephin asked. The new voice came on the radio.

"I am AC W.M.D," he said. "And that's all you ever need to know. Go on kid, scram. We have business to take care of." Burny immediately came onto the radio.

"I told you earlier, I'm through with you," Burny said in a forcibly calm voice. "Now get out before I lose my temper!" The other pilot simply laughed.

"I can't do that," W.M.D's pilot said. "I'm here to repay a debt I owe you and replace you as the best missile user in Raven's Ark."

"I'm training this guy," Burny said, barely controlling his voice. "So could you please get out?" Zephin felt awkward being addressed like this.

"This idiot? Hey, kid. Go play with your dolls. We've got business to attend to. And Bursh Fire, I expected more from you than using fresh meat as an excuse to avoid me." There was a pause here.

"Burny…?" Zephin eventually inquired.

"Get out," Burny said. "Now." Zephin didn't have to be told again. Within seconds, he was pulling himself out of his controls and unfastening his restraints.

"I mean, you've always been a spineless punk!" W.M.D's pilot exclaimed. "I even remember that time you used that twit of a girl to~" His voice was cut off as Zephin switched the simulation off and rushed out of the room. Many people turned to stare as he slammed the door behind him and leaned against it, breathing deeply. After a few seconds, he looked up to see Frosty sitting at a table, drinking something. Zephin walked over to him.

"Hey newbie," Frosty said. He invited Zephin to sit down before taking a drink of what looked like water. He offered it to Zephin, who turned it down. "What's up,"

"Burny," Zephin said. He was going to continue, but Frosty cut him off.

"Ah," he said smartly. "Say no more. Sorry to hear that, but you'll find my brother has a very short temper."

"I noticed," Zephin said dryly. Frosty didn't continue, so Zephin walked over to the nearby shop and bought himself something to drink. It was a warm alternative to Frosty's drink, and Frosty pointed that out as he sat back down.

"I need something warm," Zephin commented.

"I understand completely," Frosty said. "Burny can be… scary at times."

"No kidding," Zephin said. It was then that he noticed that he was shaking, so he calmed himself. Zephin looked around the room only to notice large screens above the shop, showing a display of Armored Cores fighting.

"It's a camera," Frosty explained without turning to look. "The screens alternate between the rooms being used. Think of it like a football game at a bar." The screen switched in a few moments to show Brush Fire and W.M.D. Zephin, despite his uneasiness, became interested and decided to watch. It could not have been going on for more than a few moments but it was obvious that W.M.D was losing terribly. Within a moment the red and yellow craft fell limp and started to smoke wildly, ending the simulation. A few seconds later, Burny burst out of one of the rooms and angrily stormed to the elevator without giving even so much as a glance toward Zephin. He was soon gone and Frosty let out a sigh.

"Don't mind him," he said. "He's just had to make decisions he never really got over."

"Decisions?" Zephin asked as he took a sip of his drink. Frosty, for some reason was extremely calming.

"As a pilot, you'll be doing a lot of things that establish you in the world, and not all of them will be things you'll be particularly proud of. Some things you'll deal with and other things you'll never get over at all. It's as simple as that." Zephin contemplated this for a while, trying to come up with a meaning. Eventually, he gave up and shook his head. Frosty took this as a sign, but didn't go into further detail. A thought suddenly occurred to Zephin.

"Why are you back so early?" Zephin asked.

"Mission went sour," Frosty explained. "Can't give you the details, but I didn't like where things were going. I may be willing to kill for money, but there are some things I just won't do." Zephin nearly choked on his drink. Did he say kill? He tried to hide this, but Frosty took notice.

"What?" he asked. Zephin waved his hand in dismissal, but Frosty set down his drink and stared at him. "Yeah, I kill people. So does Burny, Eli, Oak, and every other pilot who's ever piloted one of these machines. What? Do you think that all those MTs you destroy are piloted electronically? Hell no! You were a MT pilot, so you should know better! There are people in those things, people who work for money and will kill you just as quickly as you would them to get the job done. Some people adjust and some don't. In the end, I guess it's your ability to cope with this. If you can you'll go far. If not… well…" Frosty stopped here and took another sip of his drink. Zephin stared at him in amazement. Some part of him didn't want to hear this, but most all of him knew it was true. To pilot an Armored Core was a simple thing. You either use it to kill and destroy or die in it trying. There was nothing in between. Zephin felt like a fool for not realizing it. He took another sip of his drink and shook his head. Frosty was certainly not normal, but he knew what he was talking about. Unfortunately, this left Zephin uneasy. He had just completed his run with Poltergeist and knew what he wanted. However, he didn't know if he could pilot it now. The thought of killing had never even occurred to him, and now that it did it make him uneasy. With this in his mind Zephin suddenly felt the need to defend himself, and there was only one way he knew to do it.

"What about you?" he asked in a shaky voice. "Do you have anything you're not too proud of?" Frosty suddenly froze and set his drink down. His face was unchanged but Zephin could tell that he was hiding something powerful. It almost made Zephin sorry that he had even asked. Then, much unexpectedly to Zephin, Frosty replied.

"Yes," he said calmly. "We all do."

The two sat it silence for a while, listening to the chatter around them. Zephin wanted to talk but he didn't have any question to ask. The look on Frosty's face was unchanged and expressionless. Zephin couldn't tell what he was thinking about, but he wasn't certain he even wanted to know. Finally, Zephin decided against his better judgement and asked a question he had been rolling around in his mind.

"Why is Burny like this?" Frosty looked at Zephin, only to let out a deep sigh and take another sip form his drink. He shook his head and stared at the table for a second.

"Truthfully, I don't know if it's my place to tell you," he said. "What's his business is his business. You know what I mean?" Zephin nodded. "Maybe he'll tell you some day, maybe not." Zephin nodded again. He was about to take another sip of his drink when he remembered something.

"Ah," he said dully. He pulled a sheet of paper out of his pocket and handed it to Frosty. "Those are the parts I need for Poltergeist. Oak told them that I should give them to you when I finished testing them out." Frosty took the list and scanned it briefly. He looked up at Zephin, his eyes questioning.

"You sure?" Frosty said.

"Yeah," Zephin replied.

"You sure about this?" Frosty said, pocketing the list. Zephin nodded. Oak had warned him about this.

"I'm sure," Zephin said. "Trust me."

"Well," Frosty said. "It's just that… well… this A.C is awfully light and… you know. Yeah. Light stuff breaks easily. Are you sure you don't want a heavier machine?"

"Frosty," Zephin said, preparing himself for a struggle. "I simply cannot pilot heavy . I'm sorry, but I can't."

"Yeah, but…" Frosty said, struggling for words. "It's just that… you know… light stuff is stupid and heavy things are cool. You know?" Zephin put his hand over his forehead. Oak had been completely right after all.

"Yeah," Zephin sighed. "I know. But I… er… don't like being cool."

"Dude, you'll burn up." Frosty said. "Heavy parts far surpass light parts in their cooling capabilities." Zephin froze.

"You meant… cooling?" he asked. Frosty nodded.

"What did you think I…" Frosty paused here and a sudden though occurred to him. "You thought I meant cool like awesome? Are you serious? That's ridiculous and totally juvenile in thinking! How could you think that? That's stupid! You're stupid!" Frosty finished by reaching over and slapping Zephin upside his head before taking another drink. He looked at his drink and back at Zephin. "You sure you don't want any?"

"Sure," Zephin finally said. He drained the last bit of his drink from his cup and extended it to Frosty, who emptied a small bit of his drink into it. Zephin took a sip, only have his eyes bug out and spit the clear liquid all over the table. "What was _that_?" Zephin asked, spitting the abhorred tasted from his mouth.

"What else should it be?" Frost asked. "Smirnoff Vodka, chilled. What's wrong with it?"

"That stuff is disgusting!" Zephin declared. Frosty simply stared at him, his face frozen in disbelief. He eventually shook his head and placed his own hand on his face.

"Oh, Zephin," he said. "Oh, oh Zephin. I understand now."

"Understand what?" Zephin inquired. The foul taste was finally starting to fade.

"Understand what's wrong with you," Frosty said simply. "As far as I'm concerned, anybody who can't drink his Vodka has something wrong with him."

"What's wrong with me then?" Zephin demanded.

"You don't like Vodka," Frosty replied. "What else is there? Now, if you'll kindly excuse me you sick, terrible pervert I have to go and take up another mission to make up for earlier today." Zephin tried to protest, but Frosty drained his glass, stood up and walked right out of the waiting area. Zephin let his head tap slightly on the table. Despite his best efforts, he just couldn't accept it. There was no way that these guys were sane. After a few more seconds, he got up and went back to his room. With no AC and nobody to train with, Zephin had the rest of the day to himself. Unfortunately, there was nothing better to do in his room, leaving him to lay on his bed and close his eyes for a moment. A moment turned into minutes and minutes turned into hours, but Zephin did not stir. He was sound asleep, and as a result there was no way for him to know. As the alarms went off and the order to evacuate the Ark came up on his computer, Zephin simply turned over in his sleep and dreamed of things most unpleasant.


End file.
